The CFTC has published proposed rules regarding speculative position limits in the Federal Register. The proposed rules are intended to establish position limits for 28 exempt and agricultural commodity futures and option contracts, and physical commodity swaps that are "economically equivalent" to such contracts. The CFTC also proposed to update some relevant definitions, revise exemptions for speculative position limits, and update reporting requirements. In addition, the CFTC proposed to update certain rules, guidance and acceptable practices for compliance with Designated Contract Market (

SIFMA submitted comments to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on tax modernization. In the letter linked below, SIFMA stated that it supports the recommendations of both the New York State Tax Relief Commission and the New York State Tax Reform and Fairness Commission to eliminate the Stock Transfer Tax and merge the Bank Tax (Article 32) into the Corporate Franchise Tax (Article 9-A). See : SIFMA Letter. See also : New York State Tax Relief Commission Final Report (December 10, 2013); New York State Tax Reform and Fairness Commission Final Report (November 11, 2013).

The Senate Finance Committee will convene an open executive session on Friday, December 13, 2013, to vote on three nominations. The nominees are: Sarah Bloom Raskin for Deputy Secretary of the Treasury John Andrew Koskinen for Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service Rhonda Schnare Schmidtlein for a Member of the United States International Trade Commission The open executive session will take place at 11:00 a.m. and will be made available via webcast on the committee website. See : Senate Finance Committee Press Release. See also: Baucus Calls on Koskinen to Rebuild Public Trust as IRS

A report released by the GAO determined that the Office of Management and Budget ("OMB"), in coordination with the regulatory agencies, may not be consistently determining which rules are considered "major rules" under the Congressional Review Act ("CRA"), which was put in place to allow Congress to review major rules before they became effective. The GAO recommends, as it first did in 2011, that the OMB issue guidance to help standardize CRA processes. The GAO found that some independent agencies submitted all of their rules to the OMB while others did not, and that inconsistencies remain in

The CFTC's approval of the Volcker Rule had been delayed by bad weather in Washington, but that agency has now approved the Volcker Rule with Commissioner O'Malia dissenting. See: CFTC Press Release Announcing Its Adoption of the Volcker Rule;Statement of Support of CFTC Chairman Gensler; Statement of Support of CFTC Commissioner Chilton; Statement of Support of CFTC Commissioner Wetjen; Dissenting Statement of CFTC Commissioner O'Malia. See generally: Agencies Issue Final Volcker Rule (with Cadwalader Partner Scott Cammarn Interview on Bloomberg TV). See also: Cabinet Volcker Rule Page.